The present invention relates generally to cashless transactions. More specifically, the present invention relates to cashless transactions, including purchases of products by large numbers of consumers from retail stores or Internet sites, without the use of credit cards, debit cards or checks.
Over the past several years an international network of networks known as the Internet has become increasingly popular. The Internet allows millions of users throughout the world to communicate with each other. To provide users with easier access to information available on Internet, a World Wide Web has been established. The World Wide Web allows information to be organized, searched and presented on the Internet using hypertext. Thus, using the World Wide Web a user can submit a query for information and be linked electronically to information of interest which has been stored at web locations on the Internet. Using hypertext, a user can also communicate information to other users of the Internet. Hence, the Web has made it relatively easy for virtually anyone having access to a personal computer or other device connected to the Internet to communicate with others who are also connected to the network.
With the proliferation of Internet users, numerous services are now provided over the Internet. One of the first such services to be offered was electronic banking. Electronic banking allows banking customers to access their account information and execute banking transactions, e.g. the transfer of funds from a savings to checking account, by simply linking to a bank server using the Internet to access account information and communicate transfer instructions.
More recently, it has become possible to electronically pay bills by communicating instructions, via the Internet, to a financial institute maintaining deposited or credited funds of a pre-registered payer, or to a representative of the financial institute. The payments are then made to the payee by the financial institute or its representative. Funds from the payer""s deposit or credit account, i.e. the payer""s payment account, are debited by the financial institute to cover the payment. The payment by the financial institute or its representative to the payee can be made in any number of ways.
For example, the financial institute or representative may electronically transfer funds from the payer""s payment account to the payee""s deposit account, may electronically transfer funds from a financial institute/representative""s deposit or credit account, to the payee""s deposit account, may prepare a paper draft on the financial institute/representative account and mail it to the payee, may prepare an electronically printed paper check on the payer""s payment account and mail it to the payee, or may make a wire transfer from either the financial institute/representative account or payer""s payment account.
If the funds transferred to the payee are drawn from the financial institute/representative account, funds from the payer""s payment account are electronically or otherwise transferred by the financial institute to the financial institute/representative account to cover the payment. Further, if the payment will be made from funds in the financial institute/representative account, the payment will preferably be consolidated with payments being made to the same payee on behalf of other payers.
Accordingly, such electronic bill payment systems eliminate the need for a payer to write or print paper checks and then forward them by mail to the payee. This makes it easier and more efficient for the payer to make payments. Payees receiving consolidated payments no longer have to deal with checks from each payee and therefore can process payments more efficiently. The making of payments by the electronic or wire transfer of funds provides even further efficiencies in payment processing by payees, and it is well recognized that making payments electronically can significantly reduce the cost of processing payments for both the payer and payee.
The number of users of electronic bill payment services has grown dramatically since introduced by CheckFree Corporation, the assignee of the present application. However, because the billing side of the billing/payment process had not been integrated with the electronic payment process, many potential users remained reluctant to utilize the service.
More particularly, until the recent offering by CheckFree Corporation electronic bill payment systems were operated independent of the bill presentment process. Still today, most conventional electronic bill payment systems generally require that the payee receive a conventional paper bill from a merchant or other billing entity, the exception being for certain bill payments, such as mortgage payments, which can be pre-authorized by the payee. Thus, for most bill payments, it is only after the paper bill has been received that the payee can connect to the electronic bill payment system via the Internet and provide a payment instruction.
Using CheckFree""s fully integrated electronic bill presentment and payment system, registered merchants and other payers can electronically present bills to registered consumers and other payees by communicating bills via the Internet, to the electronic presentment/payment service provider, which could be a financial institute/representative or some other service provider. Typically, the bill is stored centrally on the electronic presentment/payment system server. The service provider notifies the payer, for example by Internet email, of the availability bill and the bill can then be accessed by the payer by connecting to the system server, via the Internet, to retrieve the bill. Once connected to the system server, the payer can also communicate a payment instruction to the server and the payment can then be made to the payee as previously described.
Accordingly, CheckFree""s electronic bill presentment and payment system eliminates the need for a payee to print paper bills and then forward them by mail to the payer. This makes it easier and more efficient for the payee to issue bills. Payers receiving electronic bills no longer have to deal with paper bills from each payer. The combination of electronic presentment and payment of bills has provided even further efficiencies and cost reductions in billing and payment processing by both payers and payees.
Although electronic bill presentment and particularly integrated electronic bill presentment and payment have received broad user acceptance from both payers and payees, there remains a significant number of potential users of electronic bill presentment and payment services who are reluctant to register for the service. There appear to be various reasons for this reluctance on the part of both payees and payers.
One reason is that electronic bill payment services are generally provided by other than providers of accounts payable software. To pay bills electronically, a business payer must somehow transfer data output from the particular accounts payable software application being utilized to the electronic bill payment system. One way to do this is to manually input data generated by the accounts payable software application to the electronic bill payment system. Manual transfer is a tedious and error prone process. To solve this problem, it has been proposed that specialized software be developed to electronically transfer the data generated by the accounting software application in use to the electronic bill payment system. Others have proposed programming electronic bill payment systems to perform a database query on a new database created using the data output from the applicable accounts payable software and to import the files from this new database for use in performing electronic bill payment processing. It has been further proposed to program electronic bill payment systems to enter the pre-existing database files of the accounts payable software application in use and import the necessary information.
Each of the above methodologies requires substantial modifications to the processes and/or accounts payable software being utilized by payers, and hence substantial cost and effort to implement. This may not be a significant problem for large business entities, since their accounts payable software is often specially developed for their own use and large entities tend to have the necessary expertise and resources to make whatever modifications are required. However, smaller business entities tend to use off the shelf standard accounts payable software and often have little understanding of the software operations, except as a user, and little if any resources to make modifications to the software.
Another reason for the reluctance of some to register for electronic bill presentment and payment is that electronic bill presentment services are also generally provided by other than providers of invoicing software. Thus, to electronically present a bill, a business payee must somehow transfer data output from the particular invoicing software application being utilized to the electronic bill presentment system. Here again, this could be done by manually inputting data generated by the invoicing software application to the electronic bill presentment system, developing specialize software, or programming electronic bill presentment systems to perform a database query on a new database or existing database of information. However, this would also require substantial modifications to the processes and/or invoicing systems being utilized by payees, and hence substantial cost and effort to implement. Here again, although this may not be a significant problem for large business entities, since their invoicing software is often specially developed for their own use and large entities typically have substantial expertise and resources to make whatever modifications are required, smaller business entities most often use off the shelf standard invoicing software and have little understanding of how the software operates, except as a user, and little if any resources to make modifications to the software.
In summary, electronic bill presentment and payment services have been widely embraced, particularly by large business entities which have the expertise and resources to implement the necessary modifications to their pre-existing procedures and systems. However, smaller business entities generally lack the necessary expertise and have been unable or unwilling to allocate the necessary resources to implement such modifications.
Further, although many individuals have registered for electronic bill payment services, a large number of individuals continue to pay bills by written check. Moreover, a significant number of those individuals who are current users of electronic bill payment services do not take advantage of electronic bill presentment services. This may be due, at least in part, to the fact that only a limited number of bills, mainly those from large business entities, are available electronically. If more payees electronically presented bills, it is likely that more payers would want to receive bills electronically. Additionally, if more payers paid bills electronically, it is likely that more payees would be interested in electronically presenting bills. Therefore a need exist for a technique which will reduce, if not eliminate, the barriers to increased usage by individuals and smaller business entities which exist in conventional electronic bill presentment and/or payment system.
Additional objects, advantages, novel features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure, including the following detailed description, as well as by practice of the invention. While the invention is described below with reference to preferred embodiment(s), it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the art having access to the teachings herein will recognize additional implementations, modifications, and embodiments, as well as other fields of use, which are within the scope of the invention as disclosed and claimed herein and with respect to which the invention could be of significant utility.
It is an object of the present invention to facilitate cashless transactions without credit cards, debit cards or checks.
Additional objects, advantages, novel features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure, including the following detailed description, as well as by practice of the invention. While the invention is described below with reference to preferred embodiment(s), it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the art having access to the teachings herein will recognize additional implementations, modifications, and embodiments, as well as other fields of use, which are within the scope of the invention as disclosed and claimed herein and with respect to which the invention could be of significant utility.
In accordance with the invention, cashless transactions, e.g. purchases of goods and services without making cash payments at the time of purchase, are performed by transmitting, preferably from a point of purchase, information identifying a purchaser of a product without identifying a payment account for the purchaser. The point of purchase could, for example, be a register within a retail store or a server at an Internet site.
Hence, using the invention, cashless purchases can be made, either in person or over a network, without a credit card, such as a VISA(trademark), MASTERCARD(trademark), or DISCOVERCARD(trademark), a debit card, or a check. Further, using the invention as described herein, a purchaser need not disclose any payment account information, e.g. a bank account number, credit card account number or debit card account number, to sellers. Rather, general identifying information is all that is required to make cashless purchases. This is true whether the purchased product will be paid for by immediately transferring deposited or credited funds in the purchaser""s payment account to the seller, or by subsequently transferring such funds, say within thirty (30) days from the date of purchase, to the seller.
The immediate payment feature allows purchasers to make non-credit purchases much as they do today using debit cards or checks, but without the need to carry a debit card or checkbook or to divulge a debit or checking account number to the seller. The delayed payment feature allows purchasers to make credit purchases in much the same way as they do today using credit cards, but without the need to carry a credit card or to divulge a credit card account number to the seller.
For in-store purchases, the identifying information can be limited to information appearing on or embedded in a single identifying document, such as a drivers license, passport or some other type identifying document. The information may appear in human or non-human readable form. For example, the information may appear as a type of indicia, such as a bar code, which is printed on the document, or may be stored on a magnetic strip or memory chip embedded within the document. This will allow the information to be scanned or otherwise read from the document to quickly extract the purchaser""s identifying information from the document.
The identifying information could be limited to the purchaser""s name, address, and drivers license or passport number, or some other identification code for the purchaser. Preferably, the identifying document includes a photograph of the purchaser so that a store register operator may, if desired, verify the purchaser""s identity from the photograph. It will be recognized that a photograph appears on virtually all, if not all, drivers licenses currently issued in the United States and on all known passports.
If further confirmation of identify is desired, other identifying information not appearing on the document, such as the purchasers home or office telephone number, social security number, or mother""s maiden name could be utilized. The latter information is preferably of the type which most purchasers have committed to memory and which is not found on the purchaser""s drivers license, passport or other identifying document.
The identifying information can be provided by the user without disclosure to the store register operator. That is, the purchaser may physically swipe the document through an optical, electrical, electro-magnetic or other type scanner to read the information on the document or may physically input the information on a keyboard, keypad or other manual input device. Purchaser operated scanners, keypads and other type input devices have already become common at check-out counters of large supermarkets and other retail store outlets. It is strongly preferred that, in all cases, the additional identifying information used to confirm the purchasers identity be entered directly by the purchaser using an input device.
For Internet purchases, the identifying information is preferably identical to that required for in-store purchasers, although this is not mandatory. However, because there is no register operator to verify the purchaser""s identity from a photograph appearing on the purchaser""s identifying document, it may be particularly desirable to require the additional information described above as further confirmation of the purchaser""s identity. In the future, it is likely that an image of the purchaser""s face will be easily transmitted over the network and can be electronically compared with a previously stored digitized representation of the purchaser""s face to automatically verify the identity of the purchaser. However, at least for the present, the additional identifying information discussed above can be provided by the purchaser to verify his/her identity when purchasing over the Internet, even if not required for purchases made in person. Additionally, an Internet email address or network locator, such as a universal resource locator (URL), associated with the purchaser could also or alternatively be used for purposes of identification confirmation.
In the case of Internet purchases, the identifying information will typically be entered directly by the purchaser using a computer keyboard or other input device which forms part of the network station being used by the purchaser. In the future, it may be possible to scan information at virtually any network station. Whatever the identifying information, it is worth reiterating that no payment account information is required to be disclosed and that no credit, debit or other type payment card and no check need be carried or used to purchase a product either in person or over the Internet.
For Internet purchases, the transmitted identifying information is preferably received at the point of purchase, typically a seller""s network server, and then transmitted over the network to a central processing point. The identifying information is ultimately received at the central processing point, typically one or a group of network servers, and processed at the central processing point to determine if the purchaser is a registered purchaser. If so, a notice confirming registration is transmitted from the central processing point and received at the point of purchase. A bill for the purchased product is generated, in digital form, at the point of purchase in response to the receipt of the confirmation of registration.
Advantageously, the purchase price of the product is also transmitted from the point of purchase, typically with the identifying information. This information is received and processed at the central processing point to determine if the purchase price exceeds a threshold amount, such as a predetermined purchase price limit. The purchase price limit could, for example, represent a pre-established credit limit for the purchaser or the amount of funds on deposit in the purchaser""s payment account. The notice confirming registration of the purchaser may include a purchase authorization or can, if desired, take the form of an authorization if the purchase price is determined not to exceed the threshold amount. Hence, the authorization may serve as the notice confirming registration or an authorization and confirmation notice may be transmitted in a unitary transmission.
According to other aspects of the invention, the generated bill is printed, in human readable form, at the point of purchase, at least in the case of in-person purchases. The signature of the purchaser is obtained on the printed bill. This is similar to the process currently used for in-person purchases made with a credit or debit card. Preferably, the purchaser""s signature is digitized. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, analog to digital signature converters have recently become more common. For example, electronic signature pads which read the purchaser""s signature as the printed bill is being signed and then digitize the signature are now in use in a number of retail stores.
The generated bill is also transmitted, in digital form, from the point of purchase, and received and processed at the central processing point to generate billing information representing the bill. The billing information may be stored in a central database so as to be accessible to the purchaser.
Preferably, the purchaser""s digitized signature, if available, is associated with the generated bill and likewise transmitted from the point of purchase. In such cases, the transmitted digitized signature is also received at the central processing point and stored in the central database as part of the stored billing information. Beneficially, the transmitted digitized signature is also centrally processed for comparison with a previously stored digitized signature of the purchaser.
The purchaser may be given the option to select either immediate or delayed payment of the bill. More particularly, the purchaser may use an input device at the point of sale or his/her Internet station to select a desired payment option. The selection is communicated from the point of sale and centrally received and processed. If payment is to be made immediately, the transmitted bill can be centrally processed to automatically generate a directive to pay the bill responsive to receipt of the bill. Therefore, there is no need for the payee to subsequently authorize payment. Hence, it may be unnecessary to store the billing information in the central database so as to be accessible to the purchaser. Accordingly, in one preferred implementation of the invention, the billing information is only stored in the central database if delayed payment is selected by the payee.
The central processing station will typically include a processor capable of receiving, processing and transmitting information, and a memory for storing billing information so as to be accessible to the purchaser on request. This station together with a number of different seller point of sale stations and, for Internet transactions, a number of different purchaser stations form the cashless transaction network.